Atharva-Veda Samhita/Book V/Hymn 30

30. To lengthen out some one's life.

[Unmocana (āyuṣyakāmaḥ).—saptadaçakam. ānuṣṭubham: 1. pathyāpan̄kti; 9. bhurij; 12. 4-p.virāḍ jagatī; 14. virāṭ prastārapan̄kti; 17. 3-av. 6-p. jagatī.]

Found also in Pāipp. ix. Used twice by Kāuç (58. 3, 11), with a number of other hymns, in a ceremony for length of life; and reckoned (54. 11, note) as belonging to an āyuṣya gaṇa.

Translated: Muir, v. 441; Ludwig, p. 494; Griffith, i. 238; Bloomfield, 59, 455; Weber, xviii. 281; in part also by Grohmann, Ind. Stud. (1865) ix. 390, 410-411.

1. Thy nearnesses [are] nearnesses, thy distances nearnesses; be just here; go not now; go not after the former Fathers; thy life (ásu) I bind fast.

The first two pādas are obscure; the two nouns in each can also be both or either ablatives (so Muir) or genitives sing. Ppp. reads parāvatas instead of the second āvatas, thus rectifying the meter of a; as it stands, we need to resolve a-āvátas ⌊or read táva for te.⌋ Ppp. also has gatān for pitṝn in d.

2. In that men have bewitched thee, one of thine own people [or] a strange person—deliverance and release, both I speak for thee with my voice.

The translation implies emendation to púruṣās in a; all the mss. have -ṣas. ⌊SPP's texts have -ṣas without note of variant. We may construe it with the second yát: 'If they (subject indef.) have bewitched thee, if a man of thine own' etc.—supply abhicacā́ra⌋.

3. In that thou hast shown malice (druh), hast cursed at woman [or] at man through thoughtlessness, deliverance and etc. etc.

4. In that thou art prostrate (çī) from sin that is mother-committed and that is father-committed, deliverance and etc. etc.

Grohmann and Zimmer (p. 395) understand here 'sin committed against mother or father': doubtless wrong.

5. What thy mother, what thy father, sister (jāmí), and brother shall infuse (? sárjatas)—heed (sev) thou the opposing remedy; I make thee one who reaches old age.

Sárjatas is a puzzle, as regards both form and sense; 'give ' (Ludwig) and 'offer' (Muir) are wholly unsatisfactory; 'weave witchcraft' (Pet. Lex.) is quite too pregnant. Ppp. gives no help; it reads in c chevasya after pratyak. The translation takes the word as a root-aorist subj. from sṛj.

6. Be thou here, O man, together with thy whole mind; go not after Yama's (two) messengers; go unto the strongholds of the living.

The Anukr. takes no notice of the defective first pāda; the addition of evá (cf. 1 c) after ihá would be an easy and natural filling-out. Ppp. has for a ehi ehi punar ehi, and reads hi for ihi in d.

7. Being called after, come thou again, knowing the up-going of the road, the ascent, the climb (ākrámaṇa), the course (áyana) of every living man.

8. Be not afraid; thou shalt not die; I make thee one who reaches old age; I have exorcised (nir-vac) the yákṣma, the waster of limbs, from thy limbs.

Ppp. reads for b jaradaṣṭir bhaviṣyasi.

9. The splitter of limbs, the waster of limbs, and the heart-ache that is thine, the yákṣma hath flown forth like a falcon, forced (sah) very far away by [my] voice.

The form sāḍhá is noted in Prāt. iii. 7. Ppp. has for a çīrṣarogam an̄garogam, combines çyenāi ’va in c, and reads nuttas for sāḍhas in d ⌊and vācā?⌋. The Anukr. ignores the abbreviation of iva to ’va in c.

10. The two seers, Wakeful-and- Vigilant, sleepless and he that is watchful—let them, the guardians of thy breath, watch by day and by night.

Ppp. reads, for c, d, te te prāṇasya goptaro divā svapnaṁ ca jāgratu. Pada-text bodha॰pratībodhā́u, by Prāt. iv. 96. ⌊Cf. viii. i. 13; MGS. ii. 15. 1 and p. 153, s.v. bodha-.⌋

11. This Agni [is] to be waited on; here let the sun arise for thee; come up out of death's profound black darkness.

In c, údehi is a mis-reading for udéhi, which is found in all the mss. except Bp.²

12. Homage to Yama, homage be to Death; homage to the Fathers, and [to them] who conduct [away]; that Agni who understands (vid) deliverance (utpáraṇa) do I put forward (puro-dhā), in order to this man's being unharmed.

With b compare viii. i. 8 b, which appears to give the clew to the meaning; utpāraṇa is the action-noun to ut-pāray (viii. 1. 17-19; 2. 9). The verse, though by number of syllables a virāḍ jagatī (46 syll.), has plainly five pādas ⌊12 + 11: 8 + 7 + 8; in d, read táṁ-tam for tám as at iv. 30. 3?⌋. Ppp. omits the last pāda.

13. Let breath come, let mind come, let sight come, then strength; let his body assemble (? sam-vid); let that stand firm with its (two) feet.

⌊In a, b, the order of the items of the return to life is (if inverted) in noteworthy accord with that of the items of the process of death, both in fact and also as set forth in the Upanishads—e.g. ChU. vi. 15.⌋

14. With breath, O Agni, with sight unite him; associate (sam-īray) him with body, with strength; thou understandest immortality (amṛ́ta): let him not now go; let him not now become one housing in the earth.

Most of our mss. (not B.I.T.K.) appear to read tú instead of nú in d. Instead of nu gāt in c, Ppp. gives mṛta, and it has mo ṣu for mā nu in d: both are better readings.

15. Let not thy breath give out, nor let thine expiration be shut up; let the sun, the over-lord, hold thee up out of death by his rays.

Ppp. reads mā ’pāno in b, and -yachati in d.

16. This much-quivering tongue, bound, speaks within; by it I have exorcised the yákṣma and the hundred pangs of the fever.

Ppp. reads for b, c ugrajihvā paṇiṣpadā tayā romaṁ nir ayāsaḥ:. Our edition reads tváyā, with all the mss., at the beginning of c, but it must of course be emended to táyā, as translated. The Anukr. takes no notice of the lacking syllable in a, which no resolution can supply. Paniṣpadā in b is prescribed by Prāt. iv. 96.

17. This [is] the dearest world of the gods, unconquered. Unto what death appointed, O man, thou wast born here, we and it call after thee: do not die before old age.

By one of the most absurd of the many blunders of the pada-text, we find puruṣa॰jajñiṣé in d treated by it as a compound. Ppp. reads, for c-e, tasmāi tvam iha jajñiṣé adṛṣṭaṣ puruṣa mṛtyave: tasmāi tvā ni hvayāmasi.